Joshua Bell’s D.C. Metro “Experiment”

Neither Joshua Bell, his 1713 Stradivarius, the “Chaconne” from Bach’s Partita #2, nor a plaintive rendition of “Ave Maria” succeeded in gaining the attention of more than 1,000 patrons of the D.C. L’Enfant Metro station one April morning in 2007.

That’s a now-famous “Joshua Bell” experiment, about which there is much speculation and little consensus as to cause and effect. “Art without a frame?” Or the steady decline of the public’s ear for classical music?